The Death of Me

Chapter Two.

Renae ~10 months later~
The breeze feels good. It's not too cold, but it's not hot air. This is the only good thing about summer. The nights it brings. Looking down, I can see the lights. They look so pretty. I just want to touch them. I step closer, reaching out, and eventually stepping over. I close my eyes as I get ready to fall. Expecting to feel the weight of gravity pulling me closer to the ground, I don't. I open my eyes and see I'm facing downwards, looking at the cars passing by. I get tugged back and thrown onto the patio. That hurt. I look up at the person who kept me from freedom and see a boy. He's tall, but not too tall. His hair has got volume to it. I'm a little jealous. I can barely make out his face, which seems to be scrunched up. I see the outline of a tear fall down his cheek. Crying? He's crying? Why? Im the one who tried to end their life. Twice now. I thought it would be easier to do it in the summer, since nobody is talking to me everyday at school because there is no school. And there's no teachers I have to worry about crying because I was one of their favorite students. Nothing to worry about. No strings attached. Just a step away from freedom.
I notice the boy is still staring. But now he's got tears streaming down his face. For some reason, I feel a pang of guilt hit me. God, he's got this annoying aura to him.
"You were almost a year past this." Ah! He speaks. Australian apparently.
"Sorry?" I said.
"You had two more months until September. Why were you going to through that all away?" he asked.
"I wanted to. And it's not throwing anything away, it's not like I've been doing spectacular," I say to him. "Plus, what's it to you?"
"I put you through all of it. I made sure you had no hospital bills to pay. I made sure you got into rehab. I sent you to a mental hospital when you needed it 3 months ago. I've made sure you keep getting your meds" he tells me.
I stare at him, my mouth ajar. He did what? "You did what!?" I yell. He takes a step closer to me, but I immediately get up and back away. "I don't even know you man, why would you do that? Unless you're a stalker."
"I'm not a stalker. I'm trying to save your life," he spoke sternly. "You need to stop trying to end it. It's plenty hard already trying to keep you on track. I don't need you fighting against me making my job harder than it is."
I stood still for a second, thinking. I could push him off the edge? No, then I'd have to see him in the after life. I could make a run for the edge? No, he'd stop me before i'd go over. My best shot is to make a run for the door and lock him up here. Okay, I've decided. Making a run for it.
"Ciao," I said before turning and running for the door. I made it inside and went to lock it, but as my hand reached for the lock, I felt nothing. I looked down at the knob to see that the lock had been taken off. Damnit. I turned around and started down the stairs, but I didn't get far before I tripped and fell. I remember seeing the concrete steps coming towards me fast before it going all black.
. . . .
I can hear shuffling in the distance. A person. I open my eyes, and look around me. This definitely isn't my apartment. Im in the living room, on a couch, of someone's home. No, not a home, pent house. Must be rich if you can afford this place. It's an open floor plan. The kitchen, dining room, and living room have all been combined into one gigantic space. Just this room is the size of my entire apartment. All of the walls are concrete grey. The floors are grey hardwood. The entire place is modern. Guess they like the design, not really my thing though.
"Oh! You aren't dead! Good, good," a woman's voice from behind me says. It startles me so much, I flop off of the couch. Ow.
"Im sorry my dear! I didn't mean to startle you," she said. I hear her heels clicking on the floor as she comes around the couch and bends down to help me up. She places her hands on my arms, pulling me off the floor, and into her arms. I couldn't tell if she was hugging me, or supporting me as I regained my balance. I went with supporting me.
Once I was off the ground and settled on to the couch again, she left swiftly without saying another word. In this moment I realized that I wasn't in my clothes. I was in someone's navy blue sweat pants and grey t-shirt, both of which were way too big for me.

Grant
What was I doing? No idea. I was getting out of the shower when I heard a thump in the living room, followed by a lot of shuffling and Dottie's voice. Dottie's my sisters girlfriend who had come by looking for Victoria, the dreaded sister, when she'd seen me carrying the girl in my arms to my apartment. Get your mind of the gutter, she tripped down the stairs, I was just helping.
"Grant!" a females voice echoed through the apartment. Speak of the devil.
Shuffling, more shuffling, footsteps getting closer and closer and finally, a lot of aggressive banging on my bedroom door. Slipping on my shirt and shorts, I made my way through the room and to the door where I opened it to find a steaming older sister. Lovely.
"I'm going to hurt you," she said sternly.
"Good morning Victoria, glad you could stop by," I said sarcastically. "Would you like some tea?"
"Who is she? Why is she in your apartment?" She questioned, "and why the hell does she not remember how she got here?!"
I ignored her, walking into my kitchen and grabbing a bottle of pills from the cabinet. No, I'm not a drug addict. It's for my heart. In my family, there's a condition that runs on the mens side called Coronary Artery Disease. It can be hereditary, and in my family it is. All the men on my dads side have or had it. They reached the ripe old age of 36 and pop went the weasel. I've got four years till then and I'm trying to defy it by taking these pills that are supposed to help try and prevent it from happening.
I'm working on becoming a surgeon. Cardio thoracic surgeon to be exact. I've been working as a board certified Pediatric Surgeon for about 2 years. Trust me, I've enjoyed it. I love children! But I wanted to do what I wanted to. I got peer pressured into specializing in Peds because I was so good with kids. Although, I've always wanted to go into Cardio. I have always wanted to be a cardio god. The type you read about only in articles, winning awards. The type you would die to meet, but most likely never will. That's who I really want to be, so I decided I was going to make a change and I went for it. I requested to start my residency over again, focusing on cardio this time. They hospital head made me a better offer. They set me up in a 2 year residency with the cardio attending. After I finish that, I get to do a cardio fellow at the hospital. I finally get to reach my dream. I start in about a week. Last night, I had gone up to the patio of the apartment building to enjoy the view of the city when I saw her.
I had been keeping tabs on her. I dont know why per say. I saw her in the hospital a little less than a year ago when she tried to commit suicide. I didn't feel any pity though, I felt angered. Not at her, but at whoever or whatever made her feel like suicide was the only solution. I swore that night that I'd do everything to get her on track and make sure she has a beautiful life. I wanted her to live a life as beautiful as her. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and she tried again last night. I kept her from jumping, but she ran away and tripped down the stairs. I felt guilty, like I was the one who pushed her down the stairs, though I didn't. I decided to take her downstairs to my place so she could rest safely and I could keep an eye on her. Dottie insisted on helping me out. She was a total saint. She let me take a shower while she watched over the girl.
"Are you out of your mind?" Victoria was now standing in front of me again, continuing her questioning spree.
I continued to ignore her and walked around the bar and into the living room where the girl was sitting on my couch silently. She was fumbling with her hands. The sun from the windows lit up the room. Her hair was still very settled, a few of her hazel brown strands of hair sticking up. She was very, I wouldn't say small, but dainty. Her frame was delicate, she was abnormally pale which made her somehow more attractive. She carried herself like she was on top of the world, like she could kick anyone's ass. I wanted to know what her eyes looked like. I had never seen them before. Both times I've come face to face with her, her eyes were hidden, either by the darkness or by her own eyelids. I stared in awe at her, for she looked like an angel sitting on my couch.
I guess she sensed me staring and whipped her heard around towards me. They were green, her eyes, though they had a brown tint to them. The brown almost matched her hair. Her face was lit up in the sun light. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life. Her eyes traced my face. I hoped I wasn't entirely red. She studied me for a good while, then got stood up wearily. I watched as she rose from the cushions and turned towards me. Oh my god, I think she really is an angel. She looked so angelic, even in my spare clothes.
She played with the ends of the sleeves to my t-shirt. "I'm going to assume these are yours?"
I nodded, unable to speak. She looked at me with a look in her eye I couldn't explain. Her face remained unchanged, but her eyes were speeding through every emotion possible.
"Why am I here?" She asked. "I don't think we know each other."
I choked and started coughing. I turned to gather myself before returning my body position back to her. I somehow managed to squeeze out a few words. "You fell down the stairs after running from me."
Her face still remained, but she dropped her head a little. "Okay. Thanks for helping me out. I'm gonna," she pointed to the door "go home I guess." She turned in the general direction of the door but didn't move. "I have no idea where home is. I don't know where I am."
"Right. Sorry, you're in my apartment. We live in the same apartment building actually. As you can probably tell, this is the top floor," I smiled to ease the tension. It didn't work. As soon as I finished speaking, she bolted to the door and slammed it shut.
"I believe that went well," I said to myself.